THANKYOU eRiCa

My dearest bloggy friend eRiCa over at Blu Jay Studio (See my fav's list) has just given me a bEaUtIfUL gift...

I need to start with a sad story to explain: On April 28th 1996 a man called Martin Bryant, brutally and coldly killed 35 people in a place called Port Arthur in Tasmania, Australia... I remember now, as if it was yesterday, the terror l felt in my own hEaRt as l listened to the news reports of how he chased a mother and her two young girls down and shot them in cold blood... The mother pleaded to the man not to hurt her babies... But he shot her and then one of her babies and then ran after the other little girl and shot her too... I remember at the time trying not to think of the terror that poor mother and her children must have felt... l remember walking down the street and finding myself with hot tears on my cheeks... I remember not being able to conceive of the sheer madness of it! ...Having two young children myself at the time and considering conceiving my third, l remembering telling myself just wHaT was l thinking bringing vulnerable children into such a harsh and murderous world!

To this day people still talk of a iciness in the air at this particular place in Port Aurthur...

I still remember now how vulnerable this incident made me feel... l remember feeling vulnerable walking around in my own neighborhood! l remember looking into the faces of passers by and wondering wHo they might rEaLLy be?... as that murderer had looked so 'normal'...

...And l remember too, one day soon after the killings, walking past our local public pool (as l do everyday) and being in a rush... l remember seeing a mother duck, as l did every year or so, teaching her ducklings to swim in the pool closed for the season (Because of water restrictions here in Australia, we don't empty the pool in Winter and just simply top it up and treat it when Summer begins again) anyway l was rushing to get my eldest child to school but l noticed a franticness of the mother duck... and when l looked closer l realized that (because of the lack of rain) that the normally full pool water level was quite low and the baby chicks were having trouble getting themselves up the lowest step to get out... I remember thinking surely they will be fine... surely 'Mother Nature' would not be so cruel ... and l rushed on...

The next day as l passed by again, l noticed mother duck swimming in a circle in the pool... slowly around in circles... This time, l made the time, to stop for a moment and as l got closer to the wire fence entrance, l saw that she was circling around a small fluffy body, the small body of one of her babies... It was one of her small little fluffy babies, drowned ...and my hEaRt broke... and the tears flowed in all the uncontrolled emotion that l had stored inside... l cried for the poor mother duck and all the mothers of this world who had lost their babies... I cried for those poor little girls and their mother... I cried like this spontaneously afterwards for about a month, as l tried to comprehend the baby ducks death and why it happened? ...The emotion is still close to the surface now as l relay this story to you...

...And the gift from eRiCa?

Well she told of a similar story today on her blog and did the very same 'calling out' to the Universe that l did on that day for that poor little baby chick... and through my dear bEaUtIfUl friend eRiCa... l have just received my answer back... from the Universe... as I have just had the realization that the duckling story was a reflection of my pent up anger, of the fears l had for the safety of my children and my sorrow at the harshness of the world... I was the helpless mother duck going around in tortured emotional circles... I couldn't do anything to help those poor little girls and l was angry at Mother Natures callousness, for her lack of protection of the young... But as eRiCa said to me... this is the 'Cycle of Life'...



As a result of the Port Aurthur Massacre, the little girls father set up a foundation...

* THE ALANNAH AND MADELINE FOUNDATION: is a national charity keeping children safe from violence. The foundation was set up in memory of Alannah and Madeline, aged 6 and 3, who with their mother and 32 others, were tragically killed at Port Arthur on April 28th 1996.
Our vision is that every child will live in a safe and supportive environment


...and our gun laws in Australia were changed:

Attitudes to firearms and gun laws changed almost overnight, and now the results are in: Australia's tightened gun controls have been followed by a remarkable reduction in gun deaths.

Just 12 days after the Port Arthur shootings, John Howard's first major act of leadership in that first year as Prime Minister was to announce nationwide gun law reforms.

The new laws specifically targeted mass shootings, banning rapid-fire rifles and shotguns, the weapon of choice in many such crimes worldwide. In the 1996-97 Australian firearms buyback, 643,726 of the newly prohibited guns were bought by the Government from firearm owners at market value, funded by a small surcharge on the Medicare levy. Tens of thousands of gun owners also voluntarily surrendered additional, non-prohibited firearms without compensation. All up, more than 700,000 guns were removed from the community and destroyed. No other nation had ever attempted anything on this scale...

Yes EvErYtHiNg has a reason in the 'Cycle of Life'...
Thankyou Alannah, Thankyou Madeline, Thankyou little duckling
...and ThankYOU eRiCa xOx